blushing bride

next week friday luuk and i will sign our names and our lives away to each other.
because church and state are completely separate here, marriage occurs officially in the city hall or anyother selected location where civil ceremonies are legal except never never never in a church. and of course, a pastor performed ceremony does not count.
because we seem not to be the only poor people in this country, all slots for free conduction of the civil ceremony are full from last month through the end of january, we have to pick some other random time before 2pm 28 dec.
and finally, because of some nice little glitch in the paperwork having to do either with visas or time between application for and the actual marriage, and some mis/lackofcommunication at the city hall, we have to have the civil ceremony before 28 nov.
thats fine, though we had wanted to do that part on the 21st of dec, so the two occasions wouldnt be so far apart. but really its no big deal. we see the church ceremony as THE ceremony, the one that counts. the rest is just names on a paper, the stuff we have to do for the law.
so, the plan was, take our four witnesses, sign out names, go out for pizza and have a couple beers to celebrate.
it is suprisingly difficult to get people to understand this foreign concept, however! the only people who do the civil and church ceremonies seperatly here are the royal family, and thats cause their weddings are several day long occasions...
anyway, since we picked the date last week, plans have changed a bit. parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, some cousins, and of course grandparents will be there as well, and who knows, maybe some friends. and i will be wearing a cute dress, which i still have to find but jeans is not an option, so i have been told... because of course, this is the point where we will be married. the church ceremony is symbolic, where you get your blessing from God. but once those names are signed, we are hooked. in fact, someone told me, after this point, we can even have sex! (after five years waiting...its a tempting option...which in case you were wondering, we arent considering... though... no. nope. egh. crap. i am off track.).
back to the point... which is, i am frustrated. (no double meanings intended). its really hard to keep things simple. really, i should just stop fighting it. and enjoy the festivities and details that have pushed themselves upon me in some ways.
i still refuse to consider corsages.
no one misses them anyway, right?